KDE 4.0.0 has been released on January 11th, after a number of delays; the months preceding the release, the KDE developers tried very hard to downplay expectations. KDE 4.0.0 was just the first release in the KDE 4 series, and such, should not be seen as the best possible representation of the KDE 4.0.0 vision. So, when I installed KDE 4.0.0 on my Ubuntu Gutsy installation last Friday, I knew what to expect: KDE 4 Developer Release 1 (yes, I am a BeOS guy - how did you know?). Read on for a few quick first impressions.
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Member since:2007-02-17
You shouldn't get modded down, you offer no-one any insults, and you are perfectly entitled to your view.
You are even right in many ways. KDE 4.0 isn't good. Don't use it yet for anything other than trying out the underlying libraries, and seeing what needs to be worked on.
You get the idea ... same idea as all open source projects: Release early, release often. Development in the "bazaar" model rather than the traditional "cathedral" model. You won't get any useful end user feedback until you first release a 1.0 version.
You are way off the mark in another way. KDE 4 has barely begun, and KDE 4.0 is just the first (and very preliminary) version.
KDE 4.0 is indeed not all of KDE 4, it is just the very first "testing the waters" release of the KDE 4 series.
If you are not used to the way that open source projects are developed, and you are more used to a Windows-style of "autocratic ... here it is, like it or lump it" software releases, then this will seem strange to you.
The fact that it might seem strange (or even bizarre, pun intended) to you does not, however, mean it is no good. Literally thousands of excellent open source software projects are developed in this way.
http://catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/cathedral-bazaar/ind...
Release early, get user feedback, develop further, release often. It is called "collaboration". "Community-developed". The good bits get kept, the bad bits dropped or just fixed. Almost "software evolution", if you will.
Edited 2008-01-14 10:29 UTC
Member since:2006-01-01
I have Mandriva 2008 installed and I am very happy with it. Although I understand this is a first release for KDE4.0, I still got disappointed by excluding basic usability features. With KDE 3.x I am used to all of the above mentioned features and I am just scared they might be removed. I wonder, is KDE4.0 a complete re-write for not implementing these? Have they been left out on purpose for debugging purposes or is it that they are testing user reaction.
Edited 2008-01-14 10:41 UTC
Member since:2005-07-06
I think you'll find that no one is complaining about the development method, not even the person you're replying to. On the whole this seems like the wrong forum for lecturing on the basics of Open Source, since even if everybody here doesn't agree with it they certainly know about it. The problem is partially in the naming and partially in the response from the dev team.
The KDE team obviously shot themselves in the foot with calling it 4.0. I'm sure they had a reason for not calling it Beta or Developer release, but whatever the reason it was a bad one. Especially since every complaint is met with a response of "well what did you expect, it's a Beta software". No matter which way I look at it, the KDE team screwed up this release, and it would probably be in their best interest to admit it and just flat out say, we jumped the gun.
That being said I'm in no way criticising the underlying technology. I've looked at the new framework and libraries, and they look pretty damn amazing.
Member since:2005-07-07
None of these things got removed, they just didn't get added yet. Plasma is entirely new code, and not very complete yet. But because many other parts of KDE have been ready for a while, we decided to do a release. Keeping KDE-Edu, KDE-games and KDE-graphics waiting for plasma for another six months would hurt those projects, and we didn't want to do that.
Besides, KDE 4.0, released now or in 6 months, would have had serious issues anyway. That whould've been due to the many issues in underlying systems like Qt, X.org, drivers and such. Those need to be fixed. Thanks to KDE 4.0, developers now have a reason to fix those, so KDE 4.1 will be a much smoother ride. We simply HAD to push forward, or we never would've gotten anywhere.
Member since:
2006-01-01
KDE 4.0 has been trimmed so much that it has become useless and pathetic and this has been since the early betas. I knew nothing would change.
1. For crying out loud, why has the "Sort Icons By" been removed for from the desktop pop up menu?
2. Why has "Create New" been removed??
3. Regarding the above, is there an option for this to be re-added?
4. Why has the "Run" command been removed from the desktop menu??
5. Why has the Panel pop up menu "Customize Panel" been removed? I wanted to shrink its gigantic size but I simply could not find an option.
6. I don't know if it's the fact that the Kubuntu ISO did not have the NVidia graphics drivers installed or something else. The whole GUI is JUST sluggish. The redrawing of tool bars, dialog etc it's painful slow.
Pathetic release. Sorry KDE developers, you might be smart and intelligent but KDE 4 is a disaster! You can do better. I am sure you can. The only good thing about it is the new theme and the way toolbar movement behaves and this is not because of what you did but because of QT4!
7. I could NOT find an option to customize the panel.
8. Your new Start menu is a joke and next to useless. You should get the Vixta one.
9. Some of your dialogs, pop ups are gigantic.
10. Are you serious? KDE 4.0 is not KDE 4??? *WHY* for crying out loud create such a confusion? If it's not ready, you just call it an RC but not KDE4.0. I am sorry but KDE 4.0 *is* KDE 4 like it or not.
P.S. I wonder if I go -10 for saying all this....
Edited 2008-01-14 09:11 UTC